Frère Gregorio Belo de Vicence

Lotto kept a household account book, and in it he recorded this commission: ordered in December 1546 by the sitter himself, a lay brother named Gregorio Belo, and finished the following October. Gregorio belonged to the Hieronymites, an order that looked to Saint Jerome, and he is shown as Jerome often was, beating his breast in penance. But look at what floats behind him. The small Crucifixion in the upper corner is not a scene he stands before. It is what he pictures in his mind as he reads. Lotto is painting a man's thoughts rather than only his face, an idea well ahead of its moment. For nearly two centuries afterwards the picture hung under the name of Veronese, until scholars gave it back to Lotto in the 20th century.